Social Emotional Learning and its framework for Technology Education

Abstract

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a key construct for engagement in technology education learning at the undergraduate level. The sample population for this applied research study is two higher education institutions, one located in the Mississippi Delta with a predominately homogenous population of rural, African American students and the other in West Virginia, with a predominant population of rural Caucasian students. The students were enrolled in technology education-based courses and participated in the research study survey to assess their social emotional learning and their overall college success and engagement.  The findings of this very limited sample size showed that undergraduate students failed to connect the importance of social emotional skills especially empathy and social awareness, with academic success. Students tended to rank themselves highly in academic based categories even when their academic GPA did not reflect that rigor. All students ranked themselves low in awareness of others’ emotions and especially awareness of their faculty’s perspectives.